New & Improved: B2B Institutional Investment Site Adds New Funds

InvestorForce, a B2B Web site serving the institutional community, has created a funds supermarket geared to small- and mid-sized institutional investors.

The Wayne, Penn.-based company says that 54 investment management firms have agreed to list their comingled and institutional funds at Funds Marketplace, part of InvestorForce.com.

It features more than 400 funds from firms like State Street Research & Management Company, Goldman Sachs & Co., Standish, Ayer and Wood and Metropolitan West.

"Funds Marketplace is really designed to enable small- to mid-sized institutions to leverage technology in order to access institutional investment products, daily online reporting and monitoring along with integrated analytical tools," says Jim Morrissey, CEO of InvestorForce.

Previously, InvestorForce users only had access to separate accounts. That was a problem for small and medium firms "because their accounts didn't meet the minimum dollar requirements for an institutional separate account" and thus they couldn't avail themselves of InvestorForce's technology and portfolio manager search functions, Morrissey says.

That changes with the launch of Funds Marketplace. "If you're a plan sponsor with a pension plan that doesn't meet the minimum separate account requirement of a money management firm, you can use Funds Marketplace to find a fund into which you can place your company's pension plan assets," he says.

Morrissey, a former principal with Morgan Stanley Investment Management, says that by expanding to include comingled and institutional funds, both investment managers and institutional investors benefit.

Investment managers can reach small- and mid-sized institutional investors and "enjoy the benefits of increased distribution in a cost-effective manner," he says. For medium and small institutional investors, it means an "alternative to the higher investment minimums associated with separate accounts and the higher administrative costs tied to retail mutual funds."

InvestorForce, which has five offices in the U.S. and one in London, serves institutional investors, consultants and investment managers by providing online access and resources to conduct an advanced search and selection process for traditional portfolio money managers. Users can also access InvestorForce's hedge fund database and search platform. For more information, see www.investorforce.com; 610-408-3700.